[OSGeo-Edu] Getting Started on the Free GIS Book...

[Tyler Mitchell]

Hi Landon, I'll give my opinion below...

On 19-Dec-06, at 9:13 AM, Landon Blake wrote:
> [1] Is there someone taking the lead on this project? Is there a  
> person that I can ask for final decisions on things like the book’s  
> content, style, and format?
That's what this committee is for, though I expect a smaller working  
group focused on the book would reveal itself as work progresses.   
Apart from the work Charlie Schweik's FOSS GIS curriculum work, you  
may be the main push in getting us going.

>  [2] Do we have a target audience for the book? Are we writing for  
> an international audience, for GIS beginners or experienced  
> professionals?
I'm not clear on this myself, which means we probably haven't  
discussed the overall scope (or at least not recently).  Every person  
that comes to the table seems to have a slightly different user/ 
reader group in mind.  I believe that most of us realise that some  
GIS theory, etc. needs to be included, or else the rest of the work  
may not be usable by some.  However, some of us will be more  
interested or able to contribute on specific parts.  I'd suggest we  
(you) focus on the area and audience you know best and then go from  
there when you have extra time :)
> [3] What license will we use to release the material of book? I was  
> thinking about the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share  
> Alike 2.5 License. You can find details about the license here:  
> http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/25/
> Basically the license allows the text to be freely distributed and  
> modified, but not for commercial purposes, and any modified text  
> must be released under the same license.
I'd have to dig up the archives to see if we agreed on something  
around this.  We talked a fair bit about Charlie's own curriculum and  
how/why it could be licensed certain ways.  From my angle, one thing  
to keep in mind is that any 'non-commercial' clause can actually kill  
some good use of the material.  For example, I worked with one or two  
others a couple years ago to produce a data access manual for  
MapServer, for a workshop we were running.  I included this as an  
appendix in my Web Mapping Illustrated book, because it was a very  
good reference for the audience in the book.  Re-writing material  
that I'd already contributed to didn't make sense and the other  
authors had no problems with it.  Was that commercial use?

Regardless, it helped provide a resource to open source web mapping  
users who might not have otherwise went to the free-to-download  
version online.  The other scenario is what if this committee wants  
to sell prints of the document to raise money?  Or someone wants to  
include it in a manual with, say, MapServer software they have  
bundled for a client?  I'm not quite sure why non-commercial would be  
important, when we want the knowledge to be freely and liberally  
available.  Keeping copyright with OSGeo would be good though, so  
that creator/owner is clear.

>  [4] I had also planned on starting a “math for maps” chapter of  
> the book. I realize now that this may be a little too broad of a  
> subject, and may even deserve a separate “book”. I can address this  
> at some point in the future. So I thought I would instead start  
> with an introductory chapter that defines GIS. After that I might  
> tackle a couple of chapters on common GIS data formats.
Sounds interesting.  Feel free to contribute wherever your interest  
leads you.  If you do up a chapter and then you realise it should be  
standalone or that it is something you want to steer a different  
direction, I don't think anyone here will complain.  Any activity is  
good activity.

I'd personally like to see us do some fundraising to get support  
money for developing this curriculum further.  Then to hire some  
higher level college/university students or professionals to write it  
up - with a some funds to support an editor.  But then also have the  
oversight of this committee involved.

A few ideas anyway.. hope it helps.
Tyler
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